The Magic Speech Flower eBook

“Now the worst of all the enemies of the bee
people was Moo-ween the Black Bear. One day Mr.
and Mrs. Moo-ween were walking by a hollow tree where
the bees had made their home. They looked up and
saw many of the bee folk going in and out of a hole
in the tree.

“‘What lots of honey there must be in
that tree,’ said Moo-ween. ’How good
it would taste. Let us climb up and take it away
from the bees.’ So the two bears began
to climb the tree.

“But the bees were not afraid of them.
They did not fly away and leave the bears to eat their
honey, as they had always done before. Instead,
they flew down and began to sting the bears. The
two bears could not understand it. They had never
been stung before and they groaned and growled with
pain. The bees settled upon their eyes, their
ears, and their noses, and stung them again and again,
until they had to let go of the tree, and fell to
the ground. There they rolled over and over,
growling and groaning and snapping their teeth.
The bees kept on stinging them. The bears could
not stand it. They got up and ran away as fast
as they could, Since that time the bee folk have had
stings and the courage to use them whenever any creature,
little or big, attempts to annoy or injure them.”

[Illustration]

XIII. THE STORY OF THE FIRST SWALLOWS

In May little Luke had watched Mr. and Mrs. Lun-i-fro
the Eave Swallows while they had built their queer,
pocket-shaped, mud hut beneath the eaves of the big
barn. He saw them on the muddy shores of the river,
rolling little pellets of mud, which they carried to
the barn and built into their nest, and wondered at
their odd ways.

“I wish,” he often said to himself, “that
they could talk. I would ask them how they learned
to do it.” At that time he had no idea he
would ever be able to talk to them.

After he had found the Magic Speech Flower he often
talked to Father and Mother Lun-i-fro. But their
talks were always short, for the two swallows were
always too busy chasing gnats and flies through the
air to spend much time on anything else.

Early in September the swallows began to gather in
large flocks. The young ones, who were now finishing
their lessons in flying, were introduced to the rest
of the tribe and the little boy often saw them training
in squads. They would sit in a long row upon the
peak of the barn roof. Suddenly they would start
off all together and fly about for a while. Then
they would come back and settle down upon the roof
again.

One day as little Luke was watching them, Father Lun-i-fro
happened to light upon a fence stake near him.
“Father Lun-i-fro,” said the little boy,
“what are you swallow folk doing these days?”

“We are holding our councils and getting ready
to go to the sunny Southland for the winter,”
answered the old swallow.

“Before you go,” said the boy, “I
wish you would tell me how you learned to build your
nests in such an odd way.”